


Reconstruction

by SillyKnight



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: First Meetings, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-17 20:57:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14839028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SillyKnight/pseuds/SillyKnight
Summary: Mako Mori and Hermann Gottlieb meet for the first time while she sneaks around the Shatterdome and then they are formally introduced.





	Reconstruction

**Author's Note:**

> English is not the first language so I apologize for any mistakes I might have missed while checking this. 
> 
> I had this idea and it wouldn't leave my head until I wrote it.

Mako must have been around eleven years old when she met Doctor Gottlieb.

Sensei had been stationed at Anchorage, but he had to visit the Tokyo Shatterdome for an important meeting and Mako had asked to go with him. She had been living with him and Jake for less than a year. They had been welcoming and accepting and were learning Japanese at the same time she learned English. She had come to think of them as her home, as her family and yet… Even if she knew her family wasn’t there anymore, that most of the city she knew and loved had been destroyed… she missed it and the familiarity that came with it.

Sensei had agreed and asked for an extra day of leave to accompany her around the city. She was sad that Jake couldn’t come because she would have loved to show him around, but he promised her that next time he wouldn’t fall sick, and she could give him a full tour.

Tomorrow Sensei and she would visit the city, but today he had to attend the meeting, and she was supposed to wait for him. She had permission to wander around, and Mako was thankful for that. Everyone knew her even though she had never met them before, and that was kind of overwhelming. Walking around allowed her to stay away from prying eyes and the pity in them. People who didn't know her usually looked at her with pity... She didn’t mind. She didn’t care. She had a goal: become a Jaeger pilot and defeat the Kaijus. That was all that mattered.

She was on the dock, looking at the helicopters, when she spotted some massive tanks being transported inside the Shatterdome. Kaiju parts. Massive, tanks that contained bits of Kaiju… There had not been an attack recently, so they must have been old samples. Maybe they were…

Mako was a lot of things: stubborn and determinate were right on top. But being impulsive was not in her nature, not something she did regularly, because she liked to meditate the outcome of her actions. Still, she found herself following the tanks as they were being carried inside the Shatterdome and through the intricate corridors that populated the building. She did so from a distance, making sure of not being spotted, which was hard but not impossible. She had a _mission_.

The tanks were left inside a room, and the people that carried them left right away. She approached the door and peeked inside. Mako did not see anyone around, but she did see one of the tanks. It was left right in the back of the room, right in front of the door. Inviting her in. She gulped and walked to it, transfixed.

The sickly yellow light seemed to eat the whole room, and she walked towards it, like a moth to a flame. Whatever was inside was dead and couldn’t hurt her, or anyone, but the bubbly water and the liquids made it look alive. Like a dismembered part of a zombie looking for the rest of it. She shouldn’t let Jake convince her of watching horror movies late at night.

“I don’t think you should be here,” Said a voice, suddenly, and she jumped.

From behind a whiteboard, a man appeared. The man had been looking at her with a frown, but upon realizing he had scared her he seemed a bit taken aback. The man approached her, slowly, as if scared to spook her. Mako looked at him and then at the tank. The man walked and stopped beside her, not saying anything. She looked at him again and saw him looking at the tank as well.  
A few moments passed where they both stood side by side in silence. The man moved first, he tried to crouch to be at her level, but the position must have been awkward or painful because it took him a moment to find balance. He spoke softly.

“That’s a ____”

Mako’s English was good, she could understand almost everything but sometimes she had problems with technical words. She did not understand what the man was trying to tell her and he must have realized because he looked around for something. He did not seem to find it, and looked at her again moving his hand in an attempt to jog his memory. It did not work.  
The man looked at her again with determination on his eyes. Then, the man tapped his side, and breathed in and out exageratedly while doing so.

“Oh!” Said Mako, realizing “A Lung!” She said in japanese, but the man did not know the word so he simply shrugged.

“It’s… smaller than I thought” Was the only thing she said.

The man smiled, and he seemed a bit younger than a few moments ago.

“This particular Kaiju had 4 lungs. It’s the first one to have as many.”

“Do you study them?”

“Me?” Said the man, half horrified “Goodness, no. I’m a mathematician, not a _biologist_.”

He said the last word with such disdain that, had Mako not known the word, she would have thought it was a curse. She looked at the tank again.

“Is it…”

“Onibaba’s?” The man supplied, seeing her in trouble for finishing the sentence.  Most people when speaking about Onibaba's attack in front of her hesitated, but the man had been very direct and she appreciated the bluntness. 

She nodded in response.

“No, it’s not” said the man. “Onibaba’s samples are old and Kaiju decompose fast. They have been either discarded or sent to Sydney.”

“Sydney?”

“Yes, a colleague insisted on making some further test on the shell.”

She nodded seriously. The solemn silence turned into an awkward one, and this time Mako broke it.

“My name is Mako Mori, I am very pleased to make your acquaintance”. She said, bowing. This was one of the first sentences she learned and she used to parrot it on formal occasions. It impressed grown-ups and made Jake proud. He had helped her with the pronunciation.

The man stood up with a bit of trouble, using his cane for balance.

“I am very pleased to make your acquaintance as well, Miss Mori” Said the man solemnly and returning the bow “I am Doctor Hermann Gottlieb. Now, I think that you will get in trouble if Marshall Pentecost sees you lurking around the labs.”

He said, and this time his expression was similar to the one Sensei had when he disciplined her or Jake. Serious, stern, but with a hint of complicity.

“Yes. You are right, I will go and find him.” And then, because she did not know the man and was worried of the consequences of being found somewhere she shouldn’t be... “are you going to tell him?”

The man raised an eyebrow, looked around, smiled conspirationally at her and passed his fingers across his lips indicating they where sealed. She smiled and he pointed at the door with his head.

“Now go.”

She bowed again before leaving, runnig for the door feeling a bit lighter than before.

 

 Sensei’s meeting ended earlier than expected.

“Would you like to go visit the city?” He suggested, and she nodded.

Outside the Shatterdome, she noticed Doctor Gottlieb, who was smoking alone and didn’t notice them until Sensei spoke.

“Doctor Gottlieb” Marshall Pentecost greeted gently.

The man startled and dropped the cigarette as if he had been caught doing something he shouldn’t, an action that was probably more out of habit than out of rational thought.

“Marshall,” the man said, and saluted but looked a bit remorseful.

“At ease,” said Sensei with a smile. “It’s good to see you again, and sorry about the cigarette. They are hard to come by these days.”

Doctor Gottlieb made a dismissive gesture.

“Do not worry, I was lost in thought and forgot where I was for a minute.”

“I would like to introduce you to Miss Mako Mori.” Then he looked at her and explained: “Doctor Gottlieb used to work coding the Jaegers but is now doing research on the breach.” Then he looked at Gottlieb “Doctor, Miss Mori would like to become a ranger and has been studying some Jaeger code on her own.”

“It is very nice to meet you,” he said looking impressed. He bowed to her while looking at her in the eyes with a glint of mischief in them, and she had to fight not to smile. His expression turned grave when he spoke. “It is quite difficult to become a ranger, you will have to do a lot of work.”

“I am ready.” She said, puffing her chest.

“Then, I am sure you will succeed.” He said, solemnly, sincerely.

After that, they said their goodbyes and left. Mako turned around and caught his eye one more time. Doctor Gottlieb winked at her and smiled.

She smiled back and turned around.

The city, her city, her home, was in a bad shape and almost everything she knew in her old area had been destroyed or was being reconstructed. Still, the city remained, the base, and so would she, no matter what life threw at her.

Mako was going to fight with everything she had to get what she wanted, and if she failed she would reconstruct herself and rise again.


End file.
